Thessaloniki(Greece)- Greece filed an official complaint with Serbia on Monday after a cargo plane carrying mortar ammunition crashed while attempting an emergency landing in northern Greece.
“The Greek ambassador in Belgrade has been instructed to make a complaint to the Serbian (government) to stress the need for Greek authorities to be notified in advance about the nature of the cargo,” said a Greek government official who requested anonymity pending an official announcement.
Eight crew members on the An-12 cargo plane, operated by a Ukrainian company, were killed in the crash on Saturday outside the northern Greek city of Kavala, followed by at least two hours of explosions.
Serbian officials said the plane had been carrying 11.5 tons of Serbian-made mortar ammunition to Bangladesh and was due to make a stopover in Amman, Jordan.
Mine clearance crews worked at the crash site for the second day in a cordoned-off field around 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of Kavala International Airport.
Fire Service spokesman Yiannis Artopios said no hazardous substances were detected following a crash site inspection by army specialists from a nuclear, chemical and biological defence division.
All the dead crew members were believed to be Ukrainian nationals, Artopios said.
Experts investigating the site of a cargo plane crash in Greece say they have found no evidence of dangerous substances, but widespread ordnance remains. At the same time, Serbia’s defence minister confirmed that all eight crew members had died in the incident.
The An-12 cargo plane from Serbia, flown by a Ukrainian aviation crew, crashed into fields between two northern Greek villages late on Saturday.
Authorities said that its fuselage dragged on the ground for 170 meters (nearly 190 yards) before it disintegrated. Locals reported seeing a fireball and hearing explosions two hours after the crash.
Serbian defence minister Nebojsa Stefanovic told a news conference on Sunday that the plane was carrying 11.5 tons of Serbian-made mortar ammunition to Bangladesh, the buyer. It had taken off from the Serbian city of Nis and had been due to make a stopover in Amman, Jordan.
The Greek army’s Special Joint Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defence Unit cleared two paths for Fire Service forensics experts to move in on Sunday before leaving.
By sunset, that second team had retrieved all the bodies, the commander of the army’s Landmine Field Clearing Battalion told reporters.
Local authorities said that explosives disposal experts had also started working at the site, although it looked like they would have to resume their efforts at dawn on Monday.
It was only when their work was done that Civil Aviation Authority experts would try to retrieve the plane’s black box.